Reyla
by moviebook777
Summary: Reyla Dunham, an abandoned young woman living on the streets of London, meets Will Spears one night after attempting to mug him. And why, exactly, does he think she'd make a promising shinigami?  CHAPTER 5 IS UP! Will/OC
1. Chapter 1

"Reyla, honey. It's me! Can I come in?" Reyla heard Grell's voice from behind her bedroom door. He already had the door open slightly, his green eyes peeking in through the crack.

"Mm." she replied, slightly annoyed. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now, not after _that_.

Grell walked in to find the young shinigami on her bed, reading. He stood and looked at her momentarily before approaching her.

"Will wants to talk to you, Reyla." he said, sadly. He had heard from his bedroom the fight they had had earlier and felt sympathetic for her, although he would usually side with Will. He knew the last thing she wanted to do right now was see him. Reyla glared up at him.

"...go tell him to shove it." She looked back down at her book. Grell smiled.

"Honey, you know Will. It's already shoved pretty far up there." he said kneeling down at her bedside. This made her chuckle softly. "Besides, you wanna lose your job?"

"I already came pretty close." she said, eyes still glued to the book, merely to get Grell to think she was occupied and leave her alone. He frowned and pushed the book down to her lap.

"Go see him." he said sternly. "Maybe he wants to apologize." Reyla scoffed.

"You joking? I highly doubt that." she said, turning to get off the bed.

"Oh dear, you see right through my lies." he said getting up, leaning a hand against his forehead in dismay.

"Where is he right now?" she asked.

"Don't know. I just saw him in a hallway, but now he could be in his office, his bedroom, anywh-" Grell was cut off by Reyla leaving, closing the door behind her.

Reyla turned right to go to Will's office, walking with her fists clenched, really not knowing to expect. _What a bastard..._ she thought. _He can't expect a transition like this to be easy for me! Given, it's been almost a year now, but does he honestly expect me to follow every damn order like a dog?_ Reyla continued a mental rant in the dimly lit hallway, her blue eyes glaring at the floor. This mistake of letting her guard down caused her to be unexpectedly jolted as someone walked up beside her, reached a hand out to her left shoulder, and shoved her into an open room. The door was closed behind her.

"What the hell?" Reyla shouted, her heart rate suddenly skyrocketing when she saw who had trapped her.

"Ms. Dunham. I was expecting you. How long were you going to keep me waiting?" It was Will. His voice seemed slightly irritated, but still had the famous composure he was always able to keep, even after fighting with her just hours before.

Reyla's back was against the door, and she began to realize where she was. They were in Will's bedroom, and the lights were off. _Oh...shit._

"Excuse me?" she said, trying to remain calm, biting her lip in anger. Will ignored the question to his authority.

"Ms. Dunham, I've come to the conclusion that you're erratic behavior these past few months deserves punishment. A punishment I've only dealt once before." he said, his back turned to her. He was removing his gloves. Now Reyla was getting nervous. She was still frozen against the door.

"I suggest that unless you want to face unemployment, you won't move a muscle these next few moments." He placed his gloves on a nightstand and turned to face her. He could see she was terrified. While Will was secretly the most important thing to Reyla, she was still scared to death of him.

Will walked up in front of her. He glared at her for a moment, her heartbeat quickening more. He moved in closer and backed her further against the door. He moved her right arm above her head, wrapping his hand around her small wrist, gripping it tightly. His other hand was cupped at the base of her neck, holding it firmly so she couldn't turn her head away from him. _What the hell is he doing...?_ It was clear she wasn't going anywhere...

She had him completely pinned. Finally, it was clear that he wasn't going anywhere. He couldn't escape now. They were under a bridge on the outskirts of London in the middle of the night, and it was pouring rain. Who could possibly see them? This was too easy, for once. Reyla lifted the blade up to his forehead and tilted his chin up, grinning viciously.

_"Now, if you don't want me to slash this knife down your pretty little face, you'll hand over everything you've got."_


	2. Chapter 2

_"Now if you don't want me to slash this knife down your pretty little face, you'll hand over everything you've got."_

Reyla didn't need to say anything more. With that, the man, who seemed to be a middle class man in his late 30s, promptly emptied out his jacket and pants pockets, Reyla holding him down, the knife still against his forehead. When he was done, she took hold of the one item that she wanted: the man's wallet. Everything else was left on the ground as Reyla got off the man and ran off, the man escaping as soon as her grip on him loosened, not even stopping to pick up the possessions that Reyla didn't bother to take.

Reyla continued running down the street, trying to stay close to walls or under bridges so anyone who happened to be out wouldn't find her, though she had a good chance of getting away due to the rain and it being the middle of the night. She kept running until she reached her hiding place, a spot under a small bridge on a side of town where very few people ever walked by. There weren't any stores or buildings around it either. She turned the corner into the bridge and sat against the wall, finally catching her breath.

_How cowardly people are. _she thought, leaning her head against the wall. _Men and women alike all pull the same act. They're all talk. As long as they have money in their pockets, they act like nothing can touch them. But what when it comes down to having a knife in your face, you finally realize you're nothing but a powerless coward. When your life flashes before your eyes, you're weaker than you thought you were. You aren't invincible anymore. _She looked down at the man's wallet in her lap. _Hmph. But I guess even I was like that before I became the one with the knife in my hand._

Smiling slightly, Reyla wrung her hair gently in her hands to remove the rain water, and she opened the man's wallet. It contained nothing more than a few coins. Reyla frowned at the change. _Shit. What am I gonna do with this?_ She pocketed it anyway along with the change she already had with her from previous attacks. She decided she would wait until the rain stopped before going out again, and decided on getting some sleep.

Just as she began to move further under the bridge, she heard what she thought were footsteps coming from outside. _Seriously? There's still people out there? The rain hasn't stopped yet and it's gotta be way past midnight…_ Reyla tiptoed silently back to where she was previously sitting and peeked out around the corner.

She just missed getting a view of the man from the front, but by looking at him from the back Reyla found that he was taller and skinnier than the man she had just mugged, and he was dressed a lot better, wearing an expensive looking suit. He also seemed a little younger as well. There were two odd qualities about the man, though. First, the man wasn't carrying an umbrella like the previous man was, despite being dressed in a suit that looked like it shouldn't be getting rained on. Second, he had some weird, tall object in his right hand, that from Reyla's point of view looked like extremely tall hedge clippers. _With a suit like that, this guy has to be loaded. I can definitely pin him from behind if I move quietly, so he won't have time to react. Hopefully, he'll drop those hedge clipper things, but I have my knife on me, so I'll just risk it anyway._

Quietly, Reyla moved out from under the bridge, keeping her back against the wall. She kept her eye on the man, who was still walking away. She breathed deeply once, and then took off running. Before the man could turn around, she had jumped on his back, the impact knocking what were indeed extremely large hedge clippers out of his hand. Immediately he fell to the ground face first, grunting as he outstretched his hands to keep his face from slamming into sidewalk. Holding him down firmly, Reyla quickly drew her knife, the man struggling beneath her. With one hand still holding him firmly, Reyla flipped the man over onto his back, getting a good look at his face. The first thing she noticed was that he was a lot more handsome than the previous man she mugged, or any of the other men for that matter. His eyes were an almost inhuman shade of green that she had never seen before. His glasses lay crooked on his face, and his hair, neatly slicked back before, was now slightly messy. Reyla hesitated before speaking, her free hand gripped on the collar of the man's shirt, the other holding the knife into the air. She was out of breath from running so fast, and so was the man from having the wind knocked out of him, but the look on his face was different from all of Reyla's other victims. Despite a knife hanging above him and nearly getting his face smashed in, the man seemed more annoyed about the fact that the glasses were askew on his face, quietly adjusting them back onto his nose. Reyla noticed that she had chipped one of the lenses in the process. Reyla remained in that position, staring at the man, until he managed to get out from under her by shoving her off to the right. He got up slowly and picked up his hedge clippers, using them to adjust the glasses on his face once more. Reyla got up stood still, dumbstruck by how calm the man was. He dusted his shoulders off and fixed his hair. Then he looked her dead in the eye, the first of her victims to ever do that. It was definitely strange. But what the man said next only added to that strange feeling. He glared at her, and said in a tired, emotionless voice:

"Can I help you?"


	3. Chapter 3

_Can I help you?_

The man's calm expression had Reyla dumbstruck. She stood staring at him, her jaw hanging open. _This man nearly got his face smashed in_ she thought. _I had a knife over him, so why is he not-_

"I have things to do you know. I'm not going to stand here all night waiting for you to answer me." Reyla still didn't say anything. Obviously, the question was rhetorical. The man readjusted his glasses once again. _Maybe it's a nervous habit?_

"You're not scared." Reyla said this almost as a question, though the answer was pretty clear. The man exhaled, disgruntled.

"Honestly." He shook his head. "Look at what's in my hand" he stated, talking about the hedge clippers. "And what _you're_ holding" he said as he took the small knife out of Reyla's hand. Her grip on it was loose.

"Hey-!" she yelled, the man eyeing the dull pocketknife.

"You really think...you stand a chance with _this?_" he said, mockingly.

"Well" she said, pausing a moment. "...I haven't had to use it once." _And why the frick exactly did I say that just now?_ Her mind still wasn't functioning correctly.

"Pitiful." The man shook his head, sliding the knife into his jacket pocket.

"Wait! Give that back!" Reyla yelled again, snapping into reality. She lunged for the man's jacket. He grabbed her by the wrists, mid-lunge.

"Obviously, you have no need for it, do you?" he lowered his voice and spoke sternly, still gripping her wrists. He continued looking her dead in the eye, and like her victims, Reyla was now the one trying to avert her own eyes. "You're not going to use it. You never have, and you never will. I can tell. It's only for intimidation, right?"

Reyla was quiet.

"Honestly." The man said again, holding her back tightly. "You're just as cowardly as the people you mug."

The words rang in Reyla's ears. It was as if the man had picked up on what she was thinking of just a few minutes ago. He let her go. Reyla backed away slowly.

The man took out his pocket watch and flipped it open. "Well, I should be leaving now" he said calmly. "Now, if you're going to continue these disgraceful attacks, I suggest you do so in a less cowardly manner. Maybe something less shameful than a come-from-behind attack, no?" and with that last condescending remark, he was off.

Reyla was frozen, watching the man walk away with her weapon. It took her a few moments to register the oddity of what had just happened. A rush of mixed emotions began to flood her; anger, confusion, fascination. Part of her wanted to follow him. She wanted to see where this man came from, this man who was so unflustered by her attack on him, who was attractive and stoic, yet disdainful and slightly frightening. Instead, she stood there in the rain until the man was out of sight, looking down at her feet and replaying every word the man spoke to her in her head. Every contemptuous, yet completely truthful word. She turned back defeated towards her bridge, walked under it, all the way to the back wall, and laid down, struggling to fall asleep.

Reyla woke up the next morning the same way she did every morning: sore and stiff in the back from laying on the hard brick surface under the bridge. She sat up in the damp bridge, squinting her eyes from the incoming sunlight. Looking outside, she saw people walking down the street outside, and by force of habit, she pat herself down, feeling for her pocketknife for protection. _Right...I don't have it anymore..._ she thought, remembering that it was taken away from her the night before. And then, the piercing words starting ringing in her ears again.

_"You're not going to use it. You never have, and you never will."_

_"You're just as cowardly as the people you mug."_

Reyla clamped her hands over her ears. She could hear his voice so clearly, as though the man were there, talking down to her that very moment. _So is that it?_ she asked herself. _Am I done with this shit? Is this where it stops?_

She got up off the cold brick and walked outside to collect her thoughts. As she leaned against the bridge, people on the sidewalk who were near her walked faster to get away from her. They averted their eyes. Mothers drew their kids in closer. Reyla paid them no mind. She was used to it.

She looked up at the sky above her, but was shocked by what she saw instead. She was staring straight up at the soles of a pair of men's shoes.

"What the-" she exclaimed, moving away from the wall of the bridge and turning around, trying to confirm what she saw. There was someone sitting on top of the bridge, and when she saw exactly who it was, it felt like the blood flowing in her body had stopped cold.

"Damn. I didn't think you _lived_ here."

It was him.


	4. Chapter 4

Reyla held her breath as she saw who sat, irritated, on the bridge. Upon seeing him again, she froze in her place once more. _Why on Earth did I have to see him again..._

"Are you kidding me? Where did you think I lived?" Reyla responded once her jaw started functioning again.

"Well I knew you were a criminal. I didn't think you were a troll too" the man responded, adjusting his glasses in annoyance. Reyla became increasingly pissed at her new acquaintance.

"Well, aren't you a pleasure." she said under her breath.

"I'm not here to make friends, miss" he replied, unfazed. Reyla frowned.

Some internal force made her want to get closer, though. Though he irritated her and insulted her, this man was a kind of mystery, almost like an entity to her. Despite the obvious fact that the man found their meeting again unfortunate, Reyla began to climb up the side of the small, stone bridge, grabbing the upper edge and pulling herself up. Even though the bridge wasn't that high off the ground, it took a lot of strength to climb up the side of it from the bottom. She sat down beside the man. He didn't seem to care.

"Then why are you here?" she asked him, lowering the tone of her voice.

"Work" he answered back bluntly, adjusting his glasses again with the strange hedge-clippers he held in his right hand.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm on duty right now" he said, looking at his watch. Reyla stared at him blankly. She thought he was kidding. _What kind of job takes place on a bridge in the outskirts of London?_

"You must take me for an idiot." she said, closing her eyes and looking away from him.

"I'm serious. But if you don't believe me, that's not my problem. I don't need to prove anything to you."

They were silent again. Reyla took a side glance at him occasionally, but he never moved, except to fix his glasses or look at his watch. _His glasses haven't moved an inch...there's definitely something wrong with this guy._

"How do you do it?" the man spoke suddenly. Reyla jumped a little at the sudden voice.

"What?"

"I'm waiting for work to start. I might as well make conversation if you're not going to leave me alone." he said, though he didn't make eye contact with her. _When I talked to him, he said he didn't want to make friends. But now he wants to chat because he's bored?_ Reyla thought to herself.

"Not only are you haughty, you're a hypocrite as well." she scoffed at him, standing up and jumping off the edge of the bridge.

"Where are you going?" he asked, annoyed.

"Away from you. I'm not going to tell you my life story because you're bored. Find someone else to entertain you." she hissed, walking away from the bridge, her fists clenched. The man closed his eyes again.

"Shame. I was just about to help you out as well." he said in an almost sarcastic tone. Now Reyla was livid. She turned back around and scowled at him.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don't need any goddamn help! Especially from a prick like you!" she yelled. The man sighed, got off of the bridge and walked up to her.

"Hmph. I guess it's for the best, then. If your attitude is crap and you don't seem to have respect for anyone, maybe I don't want to help you. However, if you change your mind, here's my card." He whipped are business card out of his pocket and held it out to her. "You're strong, we're severely understaffed. I was going to offer you a job". Reyla snatched the card out of his hand, but didn't bother to look at it.

"If you're going around recruiting people, you're doing a horrible job trying to get people to be willing to work with someone like you" Reyla scoffed.

"Like I said, I don't need friends. I need staff members. And if you want to live like this for the rest of your life, ruining the lives of others for your own selfish benefit, well, that's up to you. But if you want to change that attitude of yours and actually make a decent living, let me know if you change your mind. We could use an extra set of hands." He looked at his watch again. "It's almost time. I'll leave you be now." He walked back up to the bridge.

Reyla walked under the bridge all the way to the back and sat down. _That guy is really starting to get on my nerves. He doesn't have the right to talk down to me! He has no idea who I am!_ she thought to herself, biting her lip. _He's a strange one. Why one earth did he just offer me a job if he can't stand me? He must be screwing with me...this is definitely some kind of joke. The jerk._ Reyla held up the business card and read it, just out of curiosity. It read:

_William T. Spears_

_Supervisor: Dispatch Management Division_

_Grim Reaper Dispatch Society_

Reyla's stomach nearly did a backflip. _I knew it._

She got up and ran outside of the bridge, finding the man sitting right where he was before. She gritted her teeth before shouting at him.

"HEY, ASSHOLE." she yelled, waving the card in the air. The man looked down at her and spoke in his same, irritated, yet calm voice.

"Oh. So you're back".

"You do take me for an idiot, don't you! Grim Reaper? Is that some kind of joke?" The man dropped down from the bridge once more.

"Well, that's a little rude now, don't you think? I just tried to help you. I rarely do something so unnecessary. Especially for people like you. And now you're insulting my occupation?" he asked.

"Help me? You're the one that's being insulting! Do you really expect me to believe _this_ bullshit?" she screamed at him. He merely adjusted his glasses and sighed again. Then he looked down at his watch.

"Looks like it's just about time. If you're going to be stubborn, I suggest you watch now as I prove you wrong" he said, gesturing with his hedge-clippers. "Look out in the street."

Reyla turned her head, her face red from anger. The scene looked pretty normal. There were a few people walking across the streets, going about their day.

"What am I looking for?" Reyla asked impatiently.

"Patience. Keep looking." The man didn't take his eyes off his watch.

Reyla kept staring out at the scene. Then suddenly, a carriage came rolling out of the blue. It was speeding on forward, and the driver wasn't really looking where he was going. At that moment, something spooked the horses, and they began bolting down the road. The driver snapped back into reality, and tried frantically to regain control of the horses. Reyla's heartbeat picked up. The carriage was barreling straight towards a young man walking down the road, facing the opposite direction. But the driver couldn't slow the horses down. It was to late.

"Will..." Reyla muttered.

"Now."

The horses collided with the man, trampling him, followed by the entire carriage rolling over him and tipping over. The man didn't even have time to yell in pain. The impact killed him instantly. Blood spilled out from his body, and the people who witnessed the accident shrieked. The driver got up and ran away in a panic. The horses kicked around on the ground, trying to pick themselves back up. Reyla froze in shock. All of a sudden, she was nauseous.

"This is where I come in." Will said. Reyla turned her head to look at him. He walked up slowly to the body and gazed down at it. Suddenly, something black, it appeared to Reyla to be some sort of mist, streamed out of the body slowly and drifted up into the sky. Will pointed his hedge-clippers down towards the body and poked it into the fog. The mist began to divert itself into the hedge-clippers, and it was sucked up into it. Relya kneeled down, suddenly feeling weak-kneed, and lifted a hand to her mouth. She was in complete shock and disbelief at what she was seeing. It all happened so fast...

_This isn't real...this isn't real...this isn't real..._ she repeated in her mind over and over, trying to wake herself up from a dream she wasn't having.

Will finished collecting the black fog and turned back towards Reyla, witnessess still gathered around the body. They didn't seem to notice Will at all. He walked back up to her and looked down at her, Reyla looking up at him. A shiver ran down her spine.

"I'm assuming I've proved that I'm not a lying ass, now have I?"


	5. Chapter 5

She was in a small, dimly lit room, all alone. Nausea hadn't ceased to wreak havoc on her body since the incident that happened about an hour ago. She stared at the freshly pressed clothes that were folded on the bed: a white, collared shirt, a black, pleated skirt and belt, and a red tie. She did as she had been told and began removing the ragged excuses for clothing that she had been wearing for as long as she could remember. As each article of clothing hit the floor, she sunk further into disbelief that any of this was truly happening. None of it felt real, as if reality had ended along with the life of the man who was killed by the carriage.

Once Reyla regained the ability to stand, she began following Will without saying a word. All that she knew was she was following him to some unknown place; no idea where she was headed, following some strange man she had only met the day before. She knew that Will in essence hadn't lied to her once, so she had blind faith in him, but that wasn't saying much. She was leaving behind a life that she had known for two years, and she had no clue what was going to happen from here. Everything was changing so quickly.

"It isn't much further." Will said without turning back to look at her. Reyla didn't respond. She hung her head, eyes half open, gazing at her feet as she walked behind him. She wondered where exactly people like him worked. _Reapers can't possibly live on this earth...but where else would they live?_

"Reapers aren't affiliated with heaven or hell...angels or demons. In a human's eyes, I suppose you could call us 'neutral'." Will said almost monotone, seemingly reading Reyla's mind again. "Putting it simply, we despise both angels and demons alike. If you're going to work for us, that's the most basic of our beliefs. You remember that above all else."

"Mmhm." was all the response Reyla could muster. Will scowled.

"I understand you're exhausted at the moment, but in the future, such a nonchalant response will receive zero toleration from myself." he muttered.

Both of them were silent after that. They continued walking a few minutes more, further into the outskirts of London, until they reached a long, dim alleyway, tall brick buildings blocking out most of the noon sunlight. Reyla followed Will down to the end of the alley.

"Where are we?" Reyla asked, paying attention to reality again. Will shifted his glasses.

"We're just about here." Will answered, tapping one of the brick walls with his hedge clippers. _...And where is here, exactly?_ "Just one more thing I need to do. Before I can, though, you need to close your eyes." he said as he turned around to face her. Reyla scowled at him, crossing her arms.

"You do understand how odd that sounds from my perspective, yes?"

"Honestly. You didn't have to go with me, you know. Plus, I've proven that I don't lie, correct?" he said, scowling back at her. Reyla was quiet.

"You can either turn back here, no questions asked, and I'll never bother you again, or you can follow me further. This is your final chance, though." Will warned her. "There's no turning back after this point."

Reyla averted her eyes from Will and looked over her shoulder, to the street outside of the alleyway. She realized she was basically just given an ultimatum. She could either go back to barely surviving off of other people (weaponless, since there was no chance of Will giving her the knife back), just getting by off of what she managed to steal from them, or she could follow Will to God Only Knows Where, possibly meet other strange people like him, get some job that involved the dead, and become a functioning member of 'their' society. Either way she looked at it, both options were extremely unpredictable; no way of knowing what exactly would happen if she went with either option. _If I really think about it, it's not like I'm giving anything up, or leaving anything behind. Every day was the same; hiding, stealing, not knowing where I was going to sleep or if I was going to eat...how was I ever able to call that a life?_

"I would suggest making a decision soon. You're holding me up again, Miss..." Will trailed off as he looked at his watch, waiting for her to fill in the blank. Reyla snapped out of it.

"Dunham. Reyla Dunham." she replied. "...and I'm going with you." Will showed no change in expression.

"Very well, Miss Dunham. Then close your eyes."

She did so. Will turned back around to face the wall again, felt at it with his hand this time, took a few steps backward, and struck at it as hard as he could with his clippers. Just as he did, a blinding blue light was emitted, bringing with it a gust of wind harder than Reyla had ever felt before. And somehow, the blast didn't knock her off her feet. She didn't even flinch- the whole spectacle had gone by faster than the blink of an eye.

"This is the Main Branch of the Grim Reaper Dispatch Society- London Division." Will said as he held the door of the building open for Reyla. Reyla half-smiled at him as she walked through the door. _At least he's somewhat of a gentleman..._

As she walked into the lobby, Reyla took in the layout of the building. The ceiling was incredibly high, beautiful wood paneling lining the walls of the lobby. Further down, there were two staircases, with a bridge connecting them at the top, and the lobby opened up into a giant, round room, just past the staircases. Reyla could see further down that the walls there were made out of marble. It was gorgeous, and this was only a small part of the entire facility. It was exciting and overwhelming at the same time.

"Follow me." Will said as he walked up in front of her. Reyla followed him up to a rounded, wooden desk that was off to the right in the lobby. At the desk was a woman, who Reyla saw was probably about Will's age, with short, wavy blonde hair, white collared shirt, and a red tie. She had on glasses just like Will's as well, but with thicker, black frames. She had her head down, and appeared to be working diligently on some papers.

"Aaren." Will called, getting her attention.

"Yes?" the woman replied without looking up from her paperwork.

"I have a new staff member here who will begin working for us today. Could you hand me one of the New Employee Registration Forms?" he asked. From the way Will was speaking to her, Reyla gathered that they had somewhat of an informal relationship.

"Mm." Aaren responded. _Huh...Will got pissed at me when I responded to him like that. _Reyla thought. With one hand, Aaren groped around on her desk for another piece of paper, her eyes still focus on her work, the other hand still feverishly scribbling out something on them. She managed to find the exact piece of paper he was talking about and handed it to Will. He took it from her and started to walk off.

"Carry on." he said back to her while walking away. Reyla took one last look at the woman, who had finally looked up from her desk. Their eyes met, and Aaren's expression quickly changed once she saw Reyla. Her eyes widened at the thin, brown-haired, blue eyed girl walking away from her, dresses in tattered, earth-colored clothing. As Reyla turned away from her, she wondered who exactly Will had just brought into the building.

Reyla followed close behind Will as they walked past the duel staircases, into the wide, rounded area behind the lobby. In the center of the room was an enormous fountain, water flowing gracefully into the air from one large spout in the middle of the fountain, and several, smaller spouts surrounding it. A stone, bench-like structure encircled the entire structure, and Will motioned for Reyla to sit down on it before handing her the registration form and sitting down next to her. He handed her a pen from one of his pockets.

"Please fill out every space carefully. Do not miss a single one." he instructed her. "Once you're done, you'll hand it back over to Miss Stark."

"That was the woman at the front desk?" Reyla asked, resting the form on the stone next to her lap.

"Yes."

"I know I've only just met her, but you two seem to have an...interesting relationship. Have you known her for a long time?" she asked as she leaned over to begin filling out the form. Will was struck silent by the question, and he remained silent momentarily as he stared at her from behind. He sighed and adjusted his glasses.

"Aare- Miss Stark is a reaper who has been on my level for about a year now. There's a different level of formality for reapers on the same level compared to those on different levels. But I'll explain that all to you later-"

"Will?" Reyla asked, cutting him off short.

"What is it?" he replied, a little annoyed at being interrupted. Reyla obviously wasn't listening to him, missing the implication that she shouldn't address him so informally now that he was her boss.

"What if I don't know my middle name?" she said, referring to the spot on the form where she was to fill in her full name. Will shrugged.

"Leave it blank, make one up, I don't care, honestly." he replied.

"...make one up..." Reyla mumbled, intrigued. "Emmanuelle." she decided, filling in the rest of her name.

"Emmanuelle?" Will said.

"It was my little sister's name." Reyla replied, solemnly. It took a second for Will to realize that she referred to her sister in the past tense, but he didn't mention it. Reyla continued to fill in the rest of the form, which asked some general questions, like her age, height, and weight, the latter two Reyla had to guess at, and it also asked her her level of education, medical history, and date of birth.

"Alright. Finished." Reyla said, turning back around to face Will.

"Very well. I'll bring the form back to Miss Stark. You can go up the staircase on the left and go into the second room you find. It'll be your quarters for the time being. I'll meet you up there in a minute." he explained, standing up and pointing out the staircase to her. Reyla handed him the form and stood up, making her way to the room.

Aaren looked up from her desk once she saw Will standing there. She stopped her work this time.

"Who _is_ she, William?" she asked.

"A new staff member that I've taken in off the streets of London." Will replied, dead serious. Aaren raised her eyebrows.

"Off the streets? Are you mad? That is completely unlike you! What on earth possessed you to do such a thing? You can't possibly know who-" Will cut her off from her rant.

"She was able to tackle me to the ground. Me, a Death God. No normal human possesses the strength to do such a thing. She witnessed me collecting a soul. She was able to see an abridged version of the cinematic record. I can tell. I could see it in her eyes- she fell to the ground in astonishment. The girl is a reaper. She doesn't know it yet, but she is anything but human. But starting today, she's one of us." Will said very calmly, then he walked off, leaving Aaren in astonishment.

About five minutes later, Will knocked on the door to Reyla's room, and she answered. When she opened the door, she found Will standing on the other end, holding neat, folded articles of clothing in his hands.

"You are to get washed up, and change into these clothes. Once you're finished, please meet me back down by the fountain. Understood?" he said.

"Yes." she replied, taking the clothes from him. As she went to lie them on her bed, he spoke again.

"I apologize, Miss Dunham." Reyla stopped and turned around to face him.

"Say what?"

"I asked you before, 'How do you do it?' I was referring to you, living on your own. Looking back on it, I was speaking to you as if you were inferior, but now here you are, about to start working for us. Please forgive me for being pretentious." he said in a serious manner. Reyla stared at him for a moment, then chuckled quietly.

"I didn't think you were pretentious, Will. A jackass, yes, but not pretentious." she replied, smiling at him widely for the first time. Will's eyes widened; it gave him a funny feeling in his stomach. But he closed his eyes and adjusted his glasses again.

"It's William. Please remember that. I'll see you down by the fountain in a few minutes." he said, then turned around and walked away, closing the door behind him.


End file.
